Labor Pains - Pushing to Keep the Spirit of Nursing Alive (Paperback)

Do you know what nurses do for a living? Or maybe, you only think you do. Labor Pains deliver the truth. Ride along with, Paige O'Neill RN, a labor and delivery nurse who brings babies into the world for a living but can't seem to have another of her own. As a natural born healer, Paige intuitively knows how to relieve the pain of her patients; but when it comes to her own suffering she relies more and more on alcohol. When a healthcare Goliath takes over the small community hospital where Paige works, a new business plan focuses more on making money than caring for its patients. A tragic death becomes the tipping point and the nurses decide to take matters into their own hands. From the tender moments in the delivery room to the dark alleys of binge drinking, this timely trip will open your eyes to what really goes on behind the scenes of a large medical center. Labor Pains has many layers: as new lives struggle to come into the world; a united purpose grips the nurses and a political movement is born. In many workplaces, nurses need to do their jobs and go home, but at Mercy Hospital getting involved in politics has become a matter of life or death. Healthcare is changing. The battle lines between big box brands and patient care have been drawn and nurses can no longer remain neutral. Giving birth is hard, but giving birth to change can be even harder. A whole new meaning to Labor Pains emerges when a labor union organizes the nurses to stick together to make the necessary changes. A professional nurses' association, the Nurses Alliance for Quality Healthcare, teaches the nurses to push back in order to preserve the profession they believe in. In a tale filled with poignant birth stories, Labor Pains are necessary for a health care system that is dying to get better. "I am proud to have been a nurse for the past 32 years and I cannot encourage women enough to read Rita Batchley's book, LABOR PAINS. I was reluctant to read the book because I had lived that life. I was a labor and delivery nurse for 14 years before becoming a midwife and I was fearful of being too critical of Rita's book. But alas, in honor of this past Nurses' Day and at a friend's urging I started the book and was not able to put it down. Please support this hugely talented writer, and as a bonus you will have a whole new insight to the extraordinary highs, joys, and personal fulfillment of a labor and delivery nurse as well as the challenges of working in health care in the 21 century. Rita has written a very special book, and as a nurse I can't thank her enough." Maureen Brett Mohyla, RN "Labor Pains, is very entertaining. Batchley's writing engages the reader with twists and turns from the first chapter right through to the very end. Nurses and students especially will enjoy the birthing stories while connecting with Paige around a variety of personal and professional trials and tribulations. Rita Batchley's ability to use fiction to illustrate how skilled assessments and interventions of seasoned nurses make huge differences in patient experience and clinical outcomes is fantastic I have high praise for this because I believe it is imperative that nurses, doctors, administrators, and consumers gain insight into the value and complexity of RN work. And all too often it is illusive or invisible. Batchley's ability to make "it" visible is a gift to the profession and healthcare. -- -Beth Boynton, RN: Confident Voices in Healthcare